09 December 2014

Commentary - 2014 Sharjah Women's Grand Prix

The Sharjah 2014 women's grand prix tournament occurred in late August - early September and featured a number of interesting games. The following three I found particularly relevant to my study interests and playing style.

In the first game, from round 5, women's world champion Hou Yifan uses an English against Tatiana Kosintseva's Queen's Gambit Accepted type defense. Remarkably, Hou appears to have the initiative throughout the game, despite some missteps in the middlegame that allow Black to mostly consolidate a won pawn. Some key strategic decisions are made at various points by White that could have taken the game in different directions, for example on moves 16, 19 and 26. White appears to elevate some practical considerations, such as preserving her queen, over completely objective ones in her calculations. This risk pays off in the end, however, as Kosintseva, shortly after gaining an advantage around move 36, apparently lets the continuing White pressure get to her and fails to find an adequate defense heading into the endgame.

In the second game, from round 6, Black (Nafisa Muminova) manages to get the better of her better-known and higher-rated opponent, Zhu Chen, in a Slow Slav, although the final result is a draw. Muminova makes a questionable excursion with her dark-squared bishop, but after White releases the tension on move 20 and then loses her advantage of the two bishops, this allows Black to fully equalize. White perhaps overestimates her position and Black manages to gain a significant positional advantage with her better-placed pieces.

In the third game, from round 8, Elena Danelian provides a lesson on how to play what looks like an ordinary non-threatening English Opening against Muminova's Semi-Slav type setup. The positional crush begins after White forces an exchange of knight for bishop, leaving Black's remaining bishop almost useless while White's two bishops will play decisive roles. (This makes another excellent example for Mastery Concept: The Effects of Piece Exchanges.) One of the notable features of this game is how it revolves around multiple White tactical threats to the d5 pawn, none of which are actually implemented, but collectively they tie Black in knots and allow White to break through.